Columbia Unveiling Racist Conversations Is An Example Of How To Dismantle Civil Society

Last week, a cultural shaming revealed itself by way of a text-messaging / group-chat scandal involving members of Columbia University men’s wrestling team. The wrestlers sent messages ranging from “did you see any of those nigs in North St Louis protesting that teenager getting shot by cops,” to “every girl begs for the cock so hard,” amongst other sentiments.

The problem, however, is in how these exchanges were exposed. The messages were captured by screenshot, taken secretly by an unknown copier, in what was assumed by all participants to be a private conversation. There is an obvious privacy issue at play here, but I’d like to instead focus on the resultant effect on how we communicate.

When the natural manner in which people speak is revealed, and they experience shame because of that exposure, it will cause them to change their behavior in ways we might not like. Moreover, the strength of a society can be measured by how well it incorporates views that range from moderate to extreme. An increase in cultural shamings like the one at Columbia will prove harmful to political discussion.

This problem of cultural shaming has unintended consequences. First, and specific to this controversy, this is exactly the type of locker room talk we can dismiss as being meaningless. Young men say stupid, obscene things, and they say them often. Making overgrown boys, whose physiology keeps them semi-adolescent until they’re in their mid-20’s, walk over the hot coals of cultural indignation just isn’t a worthwhile practice.